


on a friday night

by dia_gonalley



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 18:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11340696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dia_gonalley/pseuds/dia_gonalley
Summary: In which the secrets she holds and the lies she tells hold Marinette down.Maybe, though, she can get through the tough time in her life- with the help of someone who now seems like she might be a little more than her best friend.





	on a friday night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astrangetypeofchemistry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangetypeofchemistry/gifts).
  * Inspired by [ML Angst Week](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10658706) by [astrangetypeofchemistry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangetypeofchemistry/pseuds/astrangetypeofchemistry). 



> Hi! I'm actually posting this from a wifi hotspot in a car somewhere in West Virginia! This is a remix for the thinkoutsidethelovesquare remix for astrangetypeofchemistry's fic ML Angst Week: Don't Need Another Perfect Line. I hope you like it! 
> 
> Title is from Ed Sheeran's Castle on a Hill!

It was so simple, how everything changed in an instant. 

Marinette was slumped in her favorite brown armchair in the living room, half asleep at 3 in the morning. The light from the television flickered on and off as she flipped through the channels. Rom-com, sitcom, family movie, she didn’t care. She just wanted something to take her mind off the nightmare she’d had.

_Chat had been crying..._

She shook the thought away and kept scrolling through the channels.  
“Can you believe he-”  
“John, I never loved-”  
“You could win a brand new-”  
Head in hand, Marinette kept going until she heard a name she recognized. She instantly sat up, suddenly wide awake.  
“Unfortunately to fans around the world, the household name Gabriel Agreste has died of a heart attack just a few minutes ago-”

Marinette screamed.

-

Chat Noir wasn’t late to patrols often. Usually, he was always there way before Ladybug arrived, and he would tease her, and she would smile and roll her eyes. But he wasn’t there, and she searched around for almost an hour, thinking he was only hiding. She put it out of her mind, and patrolled alone for the night. 

When she came the next night, he still wasn’t there. She called him, twice, but he didn’t pick up. By the third day, people started talking. The press began wondering- _Where is Chat Noir?_

There had been no akumas since the last time she saw Chat. She began to wonder if he had finally done it- if Hawkmoth was really gone. And her brain wandered from there, making the connection from Gabriel Agreste to Hawkmoth to her partner, and she had to stop thinking because she didn’t want to think about it, she didn’t want to question if her lifelong hero was the villain she had been fighting for so long.

Ladybug had never really thought about working alone. The one time she had asked Chat, he had chuckled and told her _you wish._ She had laughed then, but now she got more and more tired each night, searching the streets for her partner who had abandoned her. She didn’t eat much anymore, and slept even less. The press caught her crying on Notre Dame three times before she stopped going out at all. She left him a note at their meeting place, where he could find her if he decided to come back. She didn’t care about keeping secrets anymore. She just missed her partner.  
-

Adrien didn’t show up for school the next day. Or the next. Or the week after, and Nino was left to sit by himself in the front row, doodling in his notebook day after day. 

When he did come back, months later, he sat with his eyes downcast. He came in as class started and left as soon as the bell rang. No one had heard his voice in months.  
Marinette still came to school, sure, but she wasn’t the same. She didn’t talk in class. She didn’t talk at all, for that matter. It was like she only came to whisper “désolé” to Mme. Mendeleiv with glistening eyes when the answer failed her. She wanted so badly to ask Adrien if he knew what happened that night, if his father had been fighting against her city for years, but she could never bring herself to say anything. So she stayed quiet, keeping her painful thoughts to herself.

Alya cornered her after school one day. 

“Mari? Mari!” She didn’t respond. “Marinette!” She looked up. “What’s going on?” 

Marinette bit her lip, considering, and responded in a voice so quiet it sounded like a whisper, “I’ll tell you later.”

The bell rang, and she ducked out from under Alya’s arm, feeling the other girl’s eyes on her as she hurried away to class.

-

To: Alya  
From: Mari  
can i come over

Alya started as a knock sounded over the thunderstorm. “I got it, Maman,” she called as she made her way to the door. Lightning flashed as she opened it, revealing the soaking-wet figure of Marinette shivering on the front step. Alya started, and ran for the bathroom to get a towel. 

-

A few minutes later, Marinette was warm and cozy, snuggled under a pile of blankets, wearing borrowed clothes and the same lost expression as the past few weeks. Her best friend was sitting next to her, rubbing her back and encouraging her to talk.

“Hey, you know it’s okay, right? I’m here if you want to talk. I called your parents and told them you were staying over tonight, and I can go get you food if you want, and then maybe we can watch a movie, or something?” Marinette looked her in the eyes and managed a smile. 

“A movie would be great.”

Alya jumped up. “Awesome! Then I’ll go get us some dinner, and…” Marinette stared up at her friend as she kept talking, and as she left Marinette’s eyes followed.

Mari couldn’t lie- she felt like a burden in the Césaire household. But as Alya’s figure disappeared down the stairs, loneliness hit her like a brick, choking her until she called out for her best friend. She broke down, crumpling into a ball, and finally let out the grief she had been feeling since Adrien left and Chat disappeared and her hero had died. She could feel her best friend’s hands on her shoulders, pulling her into a hug, and she needed comfort, she needed someone to _love her_ so badly that she leaned up and-

Kissed Alya. 

Her lips were chapped. She smelled like freshly baked cookies and her face was warm under Mari’s hands, which had somehow found their way up to pull her closer. 

When Mari pulled away, and dared open her eyes, Alya’s mouth was open in shock, and she was breathing hard. “Oh my god,” Mari was frozen for a moment. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she frantically started gathering the few things she had brought, “I messed up- I’m sorry- I-”  
“Mari.” Alya hadn’t moved. “Mari, don’t leave.” And before Marinette could question it, Alya had grabbed her wrist and pulled her back in. The kiss was harder this time, more forceful but sweeter at the same time. Mari opened her mouth to moan- an honest to god moan!- and Alya’s tongue pressed past her lips. Alya’s hands dropped lower and lower, until they were cupping Mari’s ass, and yanked her closer still, hips rutting together. Mari yelped as Alya lifted Mari’s legs from off the ground, pulling them to Alya’s sides. Mari wrapped her legs around Alya, and Alya stumbled back, further and further, until she hit the bed behind her. Mari fell down on the bed, looking up to see Alya crawling over her. A smug smile crossed Alya’s face as she leaned down to kiss Mari. Mari, on the other hand, had different plans. Alya’s smile turned into a shocked gasp as Mari flipped over, now lying between Alya’s legs and pushing against her hips as Alya wrapped her arms around Mari’s neck, pulling her closer and closer and closer. Mari melted in her best friend’s warm touch, dinner forgotten.

-

Marinette lay in the bluish-blackish dark on a blow-up mattress listening to Alya’s soft snores a few feet away. She could still feel lips against hers, then hips against hers, and she lifted a hand to her face, warm just from remembering. She felt herself smiling for what seemed like the first time in months, but it faded as the thought of Chat Noir crossed her mind.   
_What would he think of me forgetting him while he’s still missing?_  
Her heart sank as she realized- she couldn’t stay. She pushed herself up and, with a forlorn glance at Alya’s peacefully sleeping form, she quietly snuck down the stairs and out the door.

-

Even with her eyes closed, Marinette could see the morning light shining through the classroom windows. It was too early to be this bright. She eased her eyes open to see the same scene as all the days before- Adrien hunched over, and Nino’s doodles.   
Usually, Alya would be passing her notes, full of laughter and jokes. Today, though, Alya wasn’t speaking to her. Mari deserved it, if she was honest. She was sure that she had used her best friend, but she couldn’t sort out how she felt about it.   
She knew she felt guilty, of course. She had bolted after randomly kissing someone who, apparently, liked her. And Mari...wanted to kiss her again. Yes, that was it. She wanted to kiss Alya again, kiss her over and over, on the lips, and forehead, and everywhere she could reach. But she also wanted Alya to lean her head back into Mari’s lap so Mari could play with her hair, and squeeze her hand when she was excited, and snuggle into her arms at night, she thought. She couldn’t let herself think of that, because it would never happen. Because Mari screwed it up, and now Alya would probably never talk to her again.   
The bell rang, and Marinette barely lifted her head from where it had fallen on the desk. The class had gone, and so Mari began to gather her school things, lifting a tired arm from her bag and back again. She stumbled out of the classroom, pulling out her phone to see when her parents would be home to let her in. It would be a while. Sighing, she stumbled over to the nearest bench and plopped down, dropping her bag next to her and leaning onto her hands. A surprised sort of gulp echoed from beside her, and she turned her head to look right into Adrien Agreste’s eyes.  
The same Adrien Agreste who had been avoiding her, and everyone else, for months. She thought about what she had been wanting to ask him the whole time-

_Was your father Hawkmoth? Was Chat Noir there that night? Did he make it out alive?_

She couldn’t just ask that- could she? Did she even want to know? If Chat was dead, would that change anything? She had assumed something had happened. Did she really want to know the truth?

Adrien was getting up. Before she could change her mind, she opened her mouth to ask. A strange squeak came out, and he turned around, obviously tense. Now that she had his attention, she could ask-

“Do you think Alya’s okay?” He raised an eyebrow, clearly confused, signaling for her to continue. “Well, you see, I lost- um, a friend, and so I think I was trying to deal with everything, and I needed something to distract me, so, I, um- well, I kissed her.”  
Adrien’s eyes bugged out.  
“Yeah, and I couldn’t figure out how I felt, so I- I left.” Marinette bit her lip. “I left, and I realized I liked her- you know, like that, but now she’s mad, and I understand why, and I want to tell her, but- you know?”   
Adrien sat back down, mouth open in shock. Mari continued. “I just- I don’t know what to do, because she won’t listen, and I just want to tell her about how I’ve never felt better than I did when I kissed her, and how she hasn’t talked to me in a day and I already miss her, so much, and-”   
Adrien’s finger lay gently against her lips. She looked at him in shock. He had a slight smile on his lips as he gestured with his head towards a very familiar girl walking towards the door.  
Mari jumped up, grabbing frantically for her bag. “Thank you! I mean- thanks so much!” She ran.

“Alya!” The redhead looked over her shoulder for a second, and then turned back around and started walking again. “Alya, wait!” Mari stumbled over herself as she ran to catch up. 

“Alya, please. I need to talk to you, because I- I don’t know what to do.” Mari tripped, landing on the cold stone floor. Her eyes began to fill, her throat catching. “Alya, come back!” Her sob burst out, and she drew her knees close to her chest.

Her voice came out as a whimper. “Alya, please. I miss you, and I know it’s only been a day, but I still miss talking to you and I want to- it’s such a stupid thing, but I want to hold your hand!” A tear ran down her cheek. “And I want you to hold me, and laugh with me, and cry with me, and we can play games, and do homework, and just talk, forever and ever, and we’ll never run out of things to talk about, because we’ll always just end up talking about each other, and-” Marinette pressed a hand to her mouth, tears flowing down her face.

A shadow fell over her. She didn’t want to see who it was, until a tear fell on the pavement in front of her. Slowly, she glanced up. 

Alya was standing there, crying just as much. She held out her hand, and Mari gripped it to pull herself up. She dusted off her skirt, and the two suddenly became aware of each other.   
Marinette looked up, meeting Alya’s eyes. She choked out the only thing she could say, “I’m sorry-” before Alya pulled her in.

Her lips were salty this time, but still warm. Still warm enough for Mari to finally feel at home again. She relaxed, smiling into Alya’s lips as she kissed back, and feeling the difference between the ravenous hunger she had felt at Alya’s house, and the softness and sweetness of this. 

When they finally pulled apart, they could hear applause, and maybe a wolf whistle or two. Mari ignored it, and, grabbing Alya’s hand and pulling her in tow, ran towards the door. 

There would be time enough for kissing. But what Mari really wanted to do was to talk, just talk, until they run out of things to say, and just get to stare at each other. To forget about Hawkmoth, and Chat Noir, and Gabriel Agreste and everything that had been holding her back for so long. 

Mari wanted to be happy.   
And she knew she had just found the perfect person to make her happy.  
Forever.


End file.
